The contemporary artist can do no less than to dedicate the power of his spirit and the flame of his art to bring light to dark places. Jose Limon, dancer and choreographer (1908-1971)

Greetings to our SDSCPA Community:

The 2010-2011 school year is flying past us. We began the school year with the good news of a continued CST school-wide growth in English Language Arts and in math as well as growth with our Academic Performance Index (API) which is now 786. Our new API goal is now 800 and beyond. Our strategic plans to meet the 800 API goal are outlined extensively in our 2010-2011 Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA). Our SPSA is available on our website at www.scpa.sandi.net or you may pick up a hard copy in our main office.

More than 230 students participated in our Summer Arts Intensive and in our partnership production with the San Diego Repertory Theater of Hairspray. Marc Shaiman, the Broadway composer and co-writer of Hairspray’s lyrics attended a performance and was pleasantly shocked and fully entertained to see the high caliber of performances by our students, and especially the all SCPA Hairspray band. In October and November, MacBeth was brilliantly performed by 37 SCPA students and with a special treat of originally-scored music by Hiram Garza, an 11th grader, who also was the conductor. Scrooge, The Musical will open on December 9 with more than 90 students. Our 2010-2011 Season Brochure of Performances was created from concept to finish by 5 students – Christian Capuchino, Kimberly Garner and Goni Dubnov who are in the 12th grade, Wyatt Guina, an 11th grader and Christina Cervantes, a 10th grader. This brochure, a great example of project based learning, has been distributed to all students and extra copies are also available in the main office.

Between our sixty-four school initiated productions and countless community performances, our SCPA students are experiencing first hand how to balance a full load of academic and arts courses. I believe successful SCPA students will be able to apply their work ethic, discipline, collaboration, creativity, and problem solving to other areas in their lives beyond high school.

We also began the year with an enrollment of 1,432 students despite the first year in which parents must pay transportation fees. As we prepare for the 2011-2012 school year, the District will be faced with more budgetary challenges that will affect all San Diego schools. The proposal of pending 2011-2012 budget cuts are listed on the District’s website at www.sandi.net. In the meanwhile, our 2010- 2011 school newsletter will be published twice a year as budgetary constraints affect time, personnel, and limited resources. This first issue covers SCPA events through January 2010. Our second issue will be published in late May. Both issues will be available on the school’s website with hard copies also available in our main office.

I invite you to stay informed by regularly checking our website throughout the school year. Do make time to see our students perform. Your support is greatly appreciated. And with the dedication and involvement of the entire SCPA community, we must tell the world about our good work through our performances and presence throughout San Diego. This great magnet school must endure. The arts often are entertaining but the arts are an undisputable venue to convey stories about the human condition or about our current plight of affairs, and to lift our spirits.

Warm regards,

Sincerely,

Mitzi Lizarraga, Principal